Search smh:

Search in:

Maloney backs tough discipline at Roosters

James MacSmith

Star playmaker James Maloney has backed Sydney Roosters NRL coach Trent Robinson's hardline approach to club discipline after Luke O'Donnell was stood down due to a series of minor breaches of conduct.

Former NSW and Australian back-rower O'Donnell was left out of the tricolours side to play Parramatta on Monday after a number of indiscretions that included arriving late to training.

Maloney, who joined the Roosters this season from the Warriors, said Robinson was doing what is necessary as he attempts to turn the eastern suburbs-based club into a premiership force again.

"At the end of the day, we all know what is expected of us and Trent had made us all aware of that," Maloney told AAP on Wednesday.

Advertisement

"We all understand that and everything is fine. We all know where we stand and every player at the club understands that.

"It has all been dealt with now. It is not an issue. It has been sorted out and we have put the matter behind us.

"Trent has dealt with it and we move on to the next game against Parramatta."

A key figure in a new-look Roosters side, five-eighth Maloney is beginning to show the sort of form Roosters powerbrokers expected of him when they signed him before the start of the 2012 season.

The 26-year-old, who hails from Orange in the NSW central west, said he was pleased with how his new club combinations were coming together thus far but there was plenty of improvement to come.

"It's just building up," he said.

"With me and (halfback) Mitchell (Pearce), it is about building that understanding and finding that consistency.

"And with someone like Sonny (Bill Williams), it's about learning what to expect and understanding how he likes to play his football."